Sydney Airport has a shopping problem, and I'd hate to see Auckland Airport follow suit.
I was in Sydney last week — such a great town! — and when I departed, I was struck once again by how brash and over-the-top the airport's duty-free push has become.
Once departing passengers have cleared security, they are assailed by the world's largest standalone airport duty-free store, a 5751sq/m shop-a-thon run by Heinemann Duty Free.
It's too much for me.
The cold-eyed science behind these places is alarming. Duty-free shops have a curved, serpentine walk-through layout because, somehow, that drives our panicked primate brains to spend more.
